


Lock Your Door

by thedancinggallifreyan



Category: Classic Alice (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Very very very slightly referenced
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-22
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2018-02-22 05:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2496299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedancinggallifreyan/pseuds/thedancinggallifreyan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Andrew is tired of Alice and Cara not listening to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lock Your Door

**Author's Note:**

> MASSIVE DISCLAIMER: I am not a writer. I am not pretending to be a writer. I only wrote this because the lack of Classic Alice fanfiction is an utter and total travesty, and I got bitten by the plot bug. Usually when that happens I ignore it, but this one was so detailed when it came to me I just had to put it down.
> 
> Characters may be OOC and verb tenses may be wonky. Like I said I'm not a writer. Nevertheless I hope you enjoy!

It was ridiculous.

 

Really it was. Andrew had been telling them for weeks- basically since he and Alice had reconciled and he started spending time in their apartment.

 

Alice and Cara NEVER locked their door.

 

It hadn’t really been that big of a deal when they lived in the dorm. They had to use key fobs to get into the building, and again for their hall. They managed to lock it some of the time, but when they didn’t it wasn’t like any old person could waltz right in.

 

Andrew wasn’t sure how they went from locking the door sometimes when there were already two precautions to never locking it in their off-campus apartment. But it infuriated him.

 

Yeah, it was nice that he never had to wait for Alice or Cara to come open the door for him when he came over to hang out or to pick up his camera equipment. But that sure didn’t make it okay. And Andrew made it a point to tell them that.

 

“It’s not safe Alice,” said Andrew, “you never know who could be wandering around the apartment complex!”

 

“I think you’re overreacting,” Alice replied, “it’s not like we live in the middle of a gang territory. We’re practically on-campus! In fact, I don’t think I’ve met a single person who lives here who isn’t a student.”

 

“What about the stoner who lives one floor down?” Andrew sighed, “he may be a student but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to wander in at any moment and steal your stuff.”

 

“He’s harmless,” Alice said while returning her attention to the book she was reading, “and what would we have that a stoner would want?” She paused, “besides the pie, I mean.”

 

Andrew didn’t feel like Alice was making much sense, but she was already lost in the world of the novel in her hands. He’d get back to it later.

 

He was proven right just a couple days after that particular conversation. Walking into the obviously-unlocked apartment he found Nathan silently sitting on the couch, somewhat panic-stricken. Cara was pacing back and forth in front of him, lecturing at quite a loud volume while she dried her hair with a towel.

 

“I mean honestly Nathan just because you’re working on this project with Andrew and Alice does not give you free range of our apart-” Cara’s cold voice was cut off by Andrew.

 

“What’s going on here?” Andrew questioned the intern, “Nathan what’d you do?”

 

Nathan opened his mouth to reply- probably in his normal two or three words- but Cara beat him to the punch.

 

“This bozo walked into to my bedroom without so much as a knock!” Cara was irate, “I had just gotten out of the shower.”

 

The intern was six different shades of red.

 

“Fortunately I still had my towel on,” Cara continued, “but if he had been one minute later he would not have eyes anymore, believe me!”

 

“Nathan what were you doing going into Cara’s room?” Andrew asked the intern.

 

“Got lost. Thought it was Alice’s.”

 

“Well,” Andrew replied, “why were you trying to get into Alice’s room?”

 

“Camera ‘n stuff.”

 

“Well next time knock before you enter someone’s bedroom,” Andrew said to the intern, “and Cara-”

 

“What?” said Cara, clearly irritated with both the men in her apartment.

 

“LOCK YOUR DOOR.”

 

* * *

 

 

Andrew thought they would have learned after that incident. But a couple weeks later Ewan walked straight into Cara’s bedroom and Andrew was furious. He had no right to be there. That jerk hurt Alice and now he had hurt Cara and he had no right to enter their private home without permission.

 

But a small part of him was still annoyed that Alice and Cara weren’t locking their door. What if he hadn’t been there? What if Alice was by herself? Sure, she was one tough cookie, but stronger women than her have been hurt by men before. Not that he thought Ewan was really capable of attacking someone out of spite. But then again, this was the guy who just outed someone without their permission in a newspaper article. Who knows what that douchebag would do next. And Andrew was not very pleased by how close Ewan had stood to Alice, or how he reached up and brushed his hand against her arm without permission. No, that guy was asking for trouble.

 

Then later that night the history majors showed up and two days after Alice and Andrew walked in to find two jumbo containers of yogurt (“seriously?” Andrew often remarked, “who eats that much yogurt?”) empty on the kitchen floor. The refrigerator was open a crack and Alice threw it open all the way, only to find all the food warm.

 

“I’ll bet it was that creepy homeless guy who wanders around campus,” Andrew said while dumping the spoiled milk down the sink.

 

“I’ll bet it was you,” Alice snorted sarcastically, tossing leftover Chinese food in the trash, “trying to teach me and Cara a lesson about locking the door.”

 

“Well maybe now you’ll learn.”

 

They didn’t. Andrew had almost given up at that point, but after Ewan showed up unexpectedly, he just couldn’t let it go. And besides, Alice had given him an idea.

 

* * *

 

 

Three days post-yogurt debacle and five days post-Ewan invasion, Andrew put his plan into motion.

 

He just was so annoyed with them. Maybe he should let it go, but he was tired and not thinking straight after Heather dumped him. Besides, he truly thought this plan would finally get Alice to lock the door.

 

He kept calling it a plan in his head, but it was pretty straightforward. He walked into the apartment at about 3 am. He would have preferred to get a full night of sleep, but knowing that Alice had been staying up late working on campaign stuff every night, he knew the only time she’d be guaranteed to be asleep would be smack dab in the middle of the night.

 

Andrew quietly slipped his shoes and jacket off, dropping them by the front door. His sock-covered feet glided silently into Alice’s room.

 

There she was, sleeping peacefully. Andrew watched her for a moment before gently grabbing her shoulder and shaking it.

 

“Wake up Alice,” Andrew said gently, “wake up.”

 

She wouldn’t wake up. After a minute or so of trying to wake her, getting louder and louder, to no avail, Andrew stepped back. Now what? The plan was to just sneak into her room in the middle of the night and wake her up, scaring her by having a person in her room when she’s sleeping. But she was out like a light. Probably from all the campaigning.

 

Andrew didn’t know what to do. The thought hadn’t occurred to him that she may not wake up. So he pulled the chair from her desk over next to her bed and sat down.

 

Maybe she would just wake up on her own at some point? Might as well sit and wait. While Andrew waited he studied her. A small shaft of moonlight cast a blue-ish glow on her face. She slept on her back, with her hands tossed above her head.

 

Andrew always imagined Alice sleeping on her side. If he was being totally honest with himself- and he had been more so now that Heather and he were no longer dating- he imagined himself curled on his side around her. But Alice laid on her back. He had read somewhere that laying on your back when you sleep showed that you were confident, and open to the world. That made sense. Alice didn’t hide who she was. She was the most honest person Andrew knew.

 

She looked so calm, like all the events of the past few weeks weren’t weighing on her. She had looked so stressed the past few days. The campaign was taking its toll, but when Ewan attacked Cara, and then Andrew himself, Alice put all the weight of that on her shoulders. Andrew knew she blamed herself, even though no one should have to feel guilty for that douchebag’s actions. No one could have known what a callous monster that cracker-eating nerd they met a couple months ago would become. But Andrew also knew that she’d never listen to him if he said that. In fact he had said that, over and over again.

 

It was also that she cared for her friends so much that she was carrying this load. Andrew could see it. She always sympathy-stressed for him when he had a test or a big project due. She was able to empathize really well with the friends in her life- an attribute Andrew was sure came from her obsessive reading and writing. And he loved that about her.

 

Heck, he loved her.

 

He hated that he finally admitted it to himself so soon after dating Heather. He hated that he had done so wrong by Heather. She was a great girl, kind and fun. Andrew really liked her. But he didn’t love her. In a way he was glad she dumped him. The whole situation would have been a lot worse if he had to break up with her.

 

But Heather watched the videos, and apparently wasn’t blind to the truth. A girl who watched that many romantic comedies was able to see in a heartbeat that she was not the female lead in his life’s story. So she finally responded to his many calls and texts. And they were done.

 

Andrew wished he could have been sadder that they weren’t dating anymore. She deserved that, but he couldn’t give it to her. His heart belonged to Alice.

 

Alice. They had been best friends since her freshman year. Andrew wanted her in his life. He wanted to comfort her, to make her smile, to see her grow as a writer and as a person. He wanted to hold her and kiss her and be with her. He’d do anything for her. Especially now, when she was so stressed.

 

It was at this point Andrew came to a self-realization. Sure, admitting to yourself that you’re totally in love with your best friend is a pretty monumental realization, but that had occurred a couple days before, and was something Andrew had been at least slightly aware of for awhile now. No this was a different kind of realization.

 

He was sitting in Alice’s room, at 3:30 am, watching her sleep. This was the creepiest thing he’d ever done in his life.

 

This was not going to make her less stressed. Not at all. And it was certainly not something to do to someone when you just admitted that you loved them and are hoping to tell them soon. No, this was some Twilight-creeper nonsense. And Andrew knew it. He stood up swiftly and went to leave her room when a light came on on the other side of the door. Cara.

 

Andrew pressed his ear to the door and heard her trod from her room into the kitchen. She sounded like she was talking to someone. He cracked the door open and observed Cara pour herself a glass of water while talking on the phone. She then sat down on the couch.

 

She must be talking to Lily, Andrew mused. When Heather had finally returned his calls it had been in the middle of the night, just like this. Cara and Lily must be having a serious talk. He definitely did not want Cara to have to deal with her roommate’s crazy friend at that moment, so he’d just have to wait it out. He plopped himself back down into the chair facing Alice’s bed.

 

It won’t take too long, Andrew thought.

 

Unfortunately, Andrew did not quite realize how long Cara would take. Or how tired he was.

 

* * *

 

 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! ANDREW WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!”

 

Andrew woke with a start. Unluckily, the chair he was in did not lend itself to sudden jumping. It tipped over backwards, Andrew still in it.

 

“Are you okay?!” the voice that had woken him exclaimed, sounding only slightly less panicked.

 

“Wha?” Andrew tried to figure out what was going on while simultaneously awkwardly trying to dismount from his tipped-over chair. This was not the best way to wake up. Suddenly a pair of soft, carefully manicured hands were helping him. After a couple more seconds of struggling he was able to make it to his feet.

 

He glanced down into Alice’s confused and slightly pissed off face.

 

Oh crap, he thought. He tried to think of a way to explain himself without coming off super creepy, but was having a hard time. Why did he have to fall asleep? And why did she have to look so gorgeous upon just waking up?

 

He lost himself for a moment, gazing at her red hair in it’s bedhead glory, her bright eyes that indicated a good night of rest. Her hands were still wrapped around his arm, the skin there fiery hot at the contact. He had seen her this early before, but not since admitting his feelings for her. This was a view he wanted to see more often.

 

But he never would if he didn’t come up with an explanation NOW.

 

“Um,” he started, before being interrupted by the door behind him being thrown open. He turned to see Cara holding a frying pan.

 

“Prichard,” she ground out, “what the hell. I thought Alice was dying.”

 

Uh-oh.

 

* * *

 

 

Andrew took his time to explain the whole story, emphasizing how he had definitely realized it was creepy and was going to leave, but got trapped.

 

Needless to say, neither woman was too pleased.

 

He avoided Alice for a few days after that. He was so embarrassed. And he hated that he made her feel unsafe.

 

On the second day post-incident Alice began texting and calling him. He didn’t respond, still upset with himself for angering and startling his best friend. On the third day of no contact, Alice was clearly done with his crap. She was waiting for him outside of his class and jumped in front of him before he had the chance to blend into the group and escape.

 

“I have something for you,” Alice said, shoving a small box into his hand before he had a chance to respond.

 

“Alice,” Andrew sighed, “I snuck into your bedroom in the middle of the night for the purpose of  freaking you out. You should be furious with me, not giving me gifts.”

 

“I know,” Alice replied, “and what you did was wrong and if you ever do it again I’ll unleash Cara’s wrath on you. But I know you only did this to teach me a lesson. And you know how much I love turning my life into a learning experience.”

 

“That’s true,” Andrew chuckled.

 

“And it’s not really so much of a gift as a necessity,” Alice nudged the box into his hands, “so open it.”

 

Andrew was about to protest again, but looking at her hopeful eyes and her gentle smile, he couldn’t resist. He opened the box to find a small key.

 

“You need it now,” Alice said with proud assurance, “because we have been locking the door with surprising regularity.”

 

“Most people wouldn’t give a key to the guy who just snuck into their apartment in the middle of the night,” Andrew responded.

 

“I know,” she looked down, “but you need to be able to get in my apartment so you can film and get your equipment. And besides. I need you.”

 

Alice said the last part so quietly Andrew wasn’t sure he heard her correctly. She looked back up as she finished speaking, looking vulnerable and tired. Andrew met her eyes with a soft smile.

 

“Ewan’s still out there going crazy,” Alice continued, “and there’s no way I can get through it without my best friend. I know this situation has been really hard on you too, but please?”

 

Andrew smiled wider. They’d be okay.

  
“C’mon,” he said, “let’s go get lunch.”


End file.
